Biography - T. S. Hosler

T. S. HOSLER, horticulturist, P. O. Villa Ridge, was born in Lancaster
County, Penn., April 12, 1840, to Israel and Sarah (Everet) Hosler. Both
died in Pickaway County, Ohio, where they moved when our subject was small.
In 1861, Mr. Hosler enlisted in Company K, Fifty-fifth Ohio Infantry, Col.
Lee. He went out as a private, but was promoted successively to First
Lieutenancy. He veteranized and served for four years and three months. He
was in some of the hardest fights that occurred during the war. At the
battles of Bull Run and at Chancellorsville, Va., and was there captured and
taken to Libby Prison, but after thirty days got out on an exchange. He was
in Gen. Hooker's Corps that charged the summit of Lookout Mountain in the
fog, and was with Sherman on the march to the sea, and at the grand review
in Washington at the close of the war. During a transfer from Louisville to
Nashville, he was severely injured by falling under the cars, and the injury
resulted in the loss of sight in the left eye. His occupation since being
mustered out of the service has been quite changeable, for four years in the
grocery and feed business at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, then as builder and
contractor at Ft. Wayne, Ohio, such being his trade; afterward doing
carpenter work in the car shops at Terre Haute, Ind. and Mattoon, Ill. He
then went to Chicago, where he again engaged in contracting and building.
After the last big fire in Chicago, he came to this county and bought his
present farm, and has been engaged in fruit and vegetable growing since, and
has been very successful. He has twice been married, first in Upper
Sandusky, Ohio, in 1861, to Martha Midlam. She was born in Pennsylvania,
near Harrisburg. Two sons were the result of this union, viz., Harland and
Pliny. In Chicago, he was married to his second wife, Mrs. F. W. Savage. Mr.
Savage was a son of F. W. Savage, commission merchant of Chicago. By her
first husband, she had one daughter, Lottie Belle. Mr. and Mrs. Hosler have
four children — Daisy May, Ernest Hayes, Nellie and Gracie. He and wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics, he is Republican,
casting his first vote for A. Lincoln.